China Travel 2012: Shanghai
Yu Gardens were as beautiful as I remembered, and it was my first time to visit the City Gods temple.
2012 Trip – part 3: Singapore
Stefan is one of my Beijing kids; he has been living in Singapore the last two years while doing his compulsory national service there (6 weeks to go!) He was at the airport to pick me up when I arrived despite the fact that my plane landed before 5:30am. We went back to his family’s…
Spring is finally here!
This week the Spring weather suddenly came upon us here in Beijing. The daytime temperatures soared to 13, 15, 20 degrees! It’s finally warmer outside than inside! And the overnight temps are almost always above zero. It’s very exciting. My puffy coats are back in storage til next winter, which is a very lovely thing.…
Snow in March!
I woke this morning to find a layer of wet, white snow on everything. Last night’s rain turned to snow around 11pm as the temperature dropped. Gotta love snow after a week of warm weather (warm meaning tops of 12 or so several days in a row). The drive to church was so pretty! The…
Oh, Chinese new year…
Chinese new year in Beijing is something quite difficult to relate second-hand. It’s something I recommend experiencing in person! Yes, there are plenty of annoying things about it, but I enjoy it anyway. I arrived in China just after Chinese new year 2004 and I was out of the country for the start of 2005,…
Autumn in Beijing
Hi everyone, It’s now Autumn in Beijing. The temperature cooled off quite suddenly a few weeks ago and now I need a cardigan at night. The weather has been beautiful for most of the past week – clear skies and warm sun. I am soaking up the sun while it is still around! I’m sorry…
Summer travels – Dolphin Bay
I left Beijing on Monday morning, starting what will be a full month of travel around South East Asia. I return to Beijing on July 22nd, giving me a few weeks before the youth ministry kicks back in for the year. The air was terrible as I left Beijing. I’m accustomed to watching the city…
Conversations in a Nail Salon
Since everyone enjoyed my last post about my conversation with a taxi driver, I thought I’d follow up with some more conversation excerpts – this time from visits to my favourite nail salon. The lady who runs it, Lucy, is the only one who’s been there longer than I’ve been going there. We had a…
Taxi Conversation
May is a crazy time of year for me. There are graduations and farewells and end-of-year events and all sorts of related stuff. This May I’ve had a bunch of extra stuff too. CRAZY! But all wonderful stuff I’d never want to miss. Instead of talking about all that, though, I want to tell you…
Beijing Conference 2011
Youth Conference in Beijing was April 2nd-3rd. I left early in order to get to Thailand and was SO bummed to miss the last session with my Beijing kids, but that’s what happens when you try to do two conferences at the same time. (I was a day late to the conference in Cha-am). I’ll…
Sunrise on the Great Wall
For the past 4or 5 years I’ve received invitations to attend a sunrise service on Easter morning – held on the Great Wall. This year, for the first time, I actually went. We took a group of 50 people (teens and youth leaders, and a few others) to the Great Wall at Huang Hua Cheng.…
Church on the beach, Chair skating, and Cardboard shantytowns
Hello all, Well well well, I haven’t been good with stories lately, have I? I shall have to make up for it here. But first, a quick rundown on all the busyness that has kept me from writing thus far! Youth work continues to be crazy busy, and I love it! I love visiting IAB…
Stories From Tanya 